We are all aware of the barbaric acts of ISIS, al Qaeda and the others flying the Black Flag. Sadly their violence continues to kill innocents around the world and here at home. They fight in the cause of Jihad to impose their totalitarian religion on all people. But they are not the only ones working toward that goal. There are other Islamist groups who seem much less dangerous on the surface, but actually represent an even more insidious threat to free western society. They seek to use our very freedoms as weapons against us.
Though attention of late has been on the threat of Islamic State-supporting terrorists in Europe, it is important not to forget the other radical Islamist threat. This one comes with the threat of a nuclear strike on the United States that could kill millions of Americans.
Iran’s Supreme Leader continues to focus on preparations for nuclear war, rather than diplomacy, as the way forward for his nation. In remarks published on his own website this week, he said:
The remarks come in answer to diplomatic pressure at the United Nations declaring that Iran’s recent missile tests are “in defiance” of UN Security Council ruling 2231, which endorsed the framework of the nuclear deal between the Obama administration and Iran. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon agreed that the tests caused “alarm,” but deferred to the Security Council, which will have to agree unanimously in order to take any action. Such agreement is virtually certain to fail to occur as Russia has developed a working alliance with Iran, and has a veto on the Security Council. Russia is planning to profit from major military sales to Iran, including a fighter jet purchase that America’s State Department has so far refused to veto.
The State Department’s perfidy on this point is of a piece with the administration’s approach to Iran generally. At the same time that it was promising Congress that ‘snap back’ sanctions would prevent Iran from violating the nuclear deal, US President Barack Obama was writing letters to Europe and China pledging that he would stop Congress from reimposing sanctions on Iran. Congress was also promised by the administration that Iran would never have access to America’s financial markets. Now the State Department looks poised to break that promise. That would allow one of the world’s leading state sponsors of terrorism access to the richest markets in the world.
Iran’s repeated missile tests ought to remind us of the peril to America’s electric grid. Even a single strike by a weaker, more primitive weapon could kill millions of Americans by shutting down transportation of food and water. So far neither Congress nor the administration has taken the necessary steps to address this massive national security gap.
Instead, the government continues to handle this as fecklessly as it handles the several other crises it has provoked in the Middle East. Far from enforcing the terms of the deal, they are looking for new ways to hook Iran up with money and international connections. Iran could hardly be clearer about its intentions. When will the United States government begin to respond seriously to the threat it poses?
American politicians are likely to lose sight of the far more dangerous threat to our electrical grid, because the danger of personal political embarrassment scares them more than the danger of millions dead.